How do I import and replace parent pages?

[Jeff33740050deru]

Hello. I have several long Indesign files to eventually compile into a book. I altered margins, guides and running headers in the 'A' Main Body parent page of one of the files. I'd like to use that 'A' parent page across the rest of the files. I tried applying it to the other files, but it creates an extra  'E' parent page instead. I then tried a couple of things, including applying that 'E' parent page to all pages, but it places that information atop what's already there rather than replacing what's there. I also tried dragging 'E' on top of  'A' in the parent section of pages, and it does something similar. How do I import the parent page 'A' so that it simply replaces the current parent page 'A' and applies its settings to all 'A'-based pages?

Thank you

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'd wrap them in a Book and use the sync feature with your "A" chapter set as the style reference.

[Jeff33740050deru]

Interesting idea. Is there a way to then unwrap them and have the style remain in each file?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

INDD files remain completely independent in a Book, subject only to the book process changing page and note numbers throughout the component files when it's updated. You can do anything you like with any INDD file as part of a book; synchronizing and updating are almost wholly on-demand steps. And it's the only good way I know to sync styles, page layouts, all that among what are supposed to be identically structured chapters.

You can simply delete the INDB file at any time, and it will have no effect on the formerly collected INDD files.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

To be completely fair (and complete), you can also save and load Parent pages. It's in the hamburger menu of the Pages pane. I can't say how/well it works, as I've never used it. But if your goal is to keep a growing set of book component files consistent, that's a big part of what the Book feature does. I'd reserve the save/load feature for moving Parent layouts from and to single files.

[Jeff33740050deru]

Thank you, James. I appreciate the help. I'll try one or both of those. After your first post, you also got me thinking of perhaps choosing one of the files, making a copy of it, and adding the pages from the rest to that file, and then splitting it into individual files again. But probably not the best way to go about it.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Far too complicated, when (even temporary) use of the Book feature will do it all automagically for you.

Consider, also, just keeping the book in one INDD file. The only real reason to use separate chapter files is to allow independent development of each chapter (as by separate author/editors) or to allow modular assembly of a final book from a selection of chapter files. Otherwise, it's just a rather complex and ponderous layer on top of the structure, adding very little over what you can do with a single-file project.

[Jeff33740050deru]

I hear ya. The reason I chose to use multiple files was that I thought perhaps the number of images (about 1,000) in the entire project was going to slow down processing. It has been inconvenient splitting it up though.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

That... may be justification for multiple chapters, yes. It depends on size, of course, but more than about 100 images in any one INDD file can have consequences.